Boxes flagged by FC for having straps & metal staples
One of our products has been flagged by Amazon fulfilment centre for having straps around it AND metal staples.
We have been selling this product for 5+ years with the exact same packing configuration, i.e. same box with straps and metal staples. This is the first time it has been flagged as an issue.
I asked the FC whether this is a new rule but they said no.
First the product was flagged for having straps around the boxes - this I kind of understand as it would take staff longer to unpack, so I we have removed the straps from all boxes.
A week later, a separate shipment of this product got flagged - this time for having metal staples on the boxes.
Tbh I hadn’t even realised the boxes has these staples. Each box has a gross weight of 20kg which is quite heavy, and they are received via sea freight so I understand the need to reinforce the boxes.
I’ve checked the boxes of our other products we sell and approximately half of them have these staples. This amounts to thousands of boxes that we may now have to repackage because of this.
Has anyone had similar issues and how did you deal with it?
Thanks for any advice.
Some screenshots of Amazon correspondence below:
5 replies
Seller_76AUwmqvSyRIM
Straps and staples are not allowed. It sounds to me that you have got away with it all this time but that's the rules that you should have known about and nothing new.
Seller_4AYDPBgxe3aZm
We manufacture boxes and to be honest the staples are the standard way to make the boxes for Double Wall Corrugated CardBoard boxes. The boxes are still recyclable (so dont know where that comes from).
From their example they want you to use Single wall cardboard boxes which we wouldnt recommend to our customers for your weight
Seller_uPuf4V7GDz2aH
Yes I had the same email a couple of months back.
We have had to tell our suppliers to use boxes without staples going forward. I recommend sending the Amazon email to your supplier / factory as despite alerting our supplier our latest shipment still contained boxes with staples in because the factory "supplies multiple Amazon sellers and boxes with staples isn't an issue". Be firm that staples are unacceptable. Maybe say it is a new Amazon policy. We have successfully managed to get our suppliers to pack in identical boxes with glue instead of staples - so don't let them say it is not possible due to the weight.
For what it's worth our boxes were similar to yours, net weight of around 20kg. We also removed the straps but imagine this would have also been an issue for us if left on.
Some good news to make it easier. You are able to apply for an extension by contacting fba-inbound-compliance-uk@amazon.co.uk
For example email saying that you have ordered your supplier to make the changes going forward however due to the fact some shipments are already packed and on-route prior to this you will need an implemention date of, for example July 1st.
This has worked for us - it has been a bit of a hassle though.
Oh and on a similar note if you can recommend a decent staple remover that would be great! Mine is very basic.
